2015 Key Water Power Program and National Laboratory Accomplishments Slideshow
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1/282015 Key Water Power Program and National Laboratory Accomplishments Report
By accelerating the development of markets for hydropower and marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) projects, the Water Power Program is striving to develop the next generation of water power tools and technologies, while jump-starting the private-sector innovation critical to the country’s long-term economic growth, energy security, and international competitiveness. Developing the technological and market-driven solutions necessary to lower deployment barriers and tap into new sources of clean, renewable energy from the nation’s abundant water resources for electric power generation will help our country reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, diversify its energy supply, and lower project expenses to provide cost-competitive electricity to key regions across the country.
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2/28HydroNEXT to Unlock 77 Gigawatts of Potential Clean Energy
The HydroNEXT initiative focuses on three particular resource classes to increase the contribution of hydropower to the nation’s energy mix: existing water infrastructure, undeveloped streams, and pumped-storage hydropower.
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3/28DOE Collaboration Brings New Hydropower Online
Building on a memorandum of understanding that has helped spur increased interest in private hydropower development at federal facilities, DOE, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and U.S. Department of the Army for Civil Works announced a 5-year partnership extension in March 2015 to further advance hydropower development across the United States.
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4/28DOE Hydro Fellowship Program Advances Educational Opportunities
The DOE Hydro Fellowship Program has funded 66 graduate students over the past 6 years at 31 separate universities to cultivate hydropower research at U.S. universities and target critical research areas needed to advance the hydropower industry across a number of diverse fields (civil, environmental, mechanical, materials, and electrical engineering). In 2015, the program funded 11 new fellowships to students at eight universities.
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5/28Wave Energy Prize Challenge Draws 92 Team Applicants
In an effort to attract, motivate, and inspire the ingenuity, skills, and technical expertise necessary to achieve the goal of doubling the energy capability of wave energy conversion devices within 2 years, in April 2015, DOE launched the Wave Energy Prize, a design-build-test competition. With a monetary prize, additional funding opportunities, and a chance to participate in two rounds of testing, the Wave Energy Prize registered 92 teams before narrowing the field down to 20 in August.
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6/28First Grid-Connected Wave Energy Conversion Device Launched in U.S. Waters
The MHK industry in the United States experienced a landmark moment in June 2015 when the Azura, a prototype wave energy conversion device developed by Northwest Energy Innovations with support from DOE and the U.S. Navy, was successfully launched and installed at the Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site in Kaneohe Bay, becoming the first grid-connected pilot project of its kind in U.S. waters.
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7/28Ocean Energy Devices May Act as Artificial Reefs to Benefit Some Species
With a financial award from the Water Power Program, researchers from H.T. Harvey and Associates completed a study that evaluated potential interactions between water and tidal energy converters (WECs and TECs) and fish and invertebrate communities in tropical, subtropical, and temperate western U.S. and Hawaiian coastal waters. The study found that, depending on deployment location, WECs and TECs could act as small-scale artificial reefs or fish-aggregating devices and attract a larger number of fish, which may actually be beneficial to the growth and reproduction of some species.
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8/28Pumped Storage Hydropower Increases System Reliability
To understand the various grid services pumped storage hydropower (PSH) can provide and to assess the value of these services under a variety of circumstances, a project team, led by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), studied the role and value of advanced PSH technologies. The study demonstrated that PSH plants provide a variety of benefits to the power system. In addition to energy arbitrage and ancillary services (e.g., various system reserves), PSH provides a number of portfolio advantages that increase the reliability of power system operation and reduce overall electricity generation costs.
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9/28System-Wide Optimization Tool Demonstrates Unprecedented Benefits for Hydropower Production
Supported by a DOE Advanced Hydropower Technology award presented through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researchers at Vanderbilt University and David Lipscomb University, working closely with the Nashville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, completed a 4-year project to develop a highly successful modeling framework for improving hydropower generation while minimizing water quality impacts. The framework linked the operation of two of the main stem reservoirs on the Cumberland River (Cordell Hull and Old Hickory). One of the many value-added benefits demonstrated by this system optimization tool showed that the two-reservoir-linked system enabled a 7.4% increase in hydropower revenue (approximately $19,500 per day during select key summer generation periods) while maintaining or improving water quality dissolved oxygen levels.
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10/28Water Optimization Toolkit Increases Efficiency and Reduces Environmental Impacts of Hydropower Plants
Under sponsorship from DOE, a multilaboratory team of experts from Argonne National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories has developed the Water Use Optimization Toolset to assist managers and planners in more efficiently operating hydropower plants. The objective of the project is to produce more energy and grid services from available water while enhancing environmental benefits from improved hydropower operations and planning.
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11/28New Model Helps Protect Water Quality Downstream of Hydropower Dams
Researchers at Oakridge National Laboratory, in conjunction with the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research—Hydroscience & Engineering center at the University of Iowa, have developed a model that predicts downstream total dissolved gas levels based on local saturation depth, spillway and powerhouse flow proportions, and entrainment effects. Integration and testing of the total dissolved gas module within RiverWare was led by the University of Colorado’s Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems. Performance statistics indicated that the model predicts total dissolved gas levels with acceptable accuracy across most flow cases for all seven sites investigated.
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12/28Modular Ocean Instrumentation System Provides Data Critical to Future Designs
In 2015, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed and deployed a Modular Ocean Instrumentation System that will collect data critical to the future development and deployment of MHK devices. The new system is deployed on Northwest Energy Innovations’ Azura, the nation’s first third-party validated, grid-connected wave energy conversion device.
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13/28Sandia's High-Performance Computing Capability Addresses Challenging Tidal Turbine Performance Problem
High-performance computing at Sandia National Laboratories played a key role in DOE's mission to advance the commercialization of tidal energy converters by identifying components in prototypes developed by the Ocean Renewable Power Company that were reducing power performance. Improving the system's power performance reduced the levelized cost of energy below the local "hurdle" price at which the company can compete with other regional generation sources without subsidies.
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14/28Triton Initiative Accelerates Commercialization of Marine Energy Devices
The Triton Initiative, a new capability being developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Marine Sciences Laboratory in Sequim, Washington, will support DOE-funded projects in developing environmental technology that will be used to measure and monitor the potential environmental impacts associated with marine energy devices. In its first year the initiative has already provided testing support for three environmental monitoring instruments and plans are underway to collaborate with additional instrument developers in the coming year. Ultimately, activities performed as part of the Triton Initiative will facilitate the permitting process and reduce the overall cost of marine renewable energy.
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15/28DOE-Sponsored Modeling Team Wins International Competition
To simulate the ocean environment and optimize the design of wave energy converters, the DOE Water Power Program funded a collaborative effort between National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) to develop the Wave Energy Converter Simulator (WEC-Sim). WEC-Sim's open-source platform models several types of WECs with increased simulation stability and speed. In 2015, the NREL/SNL modeling team won the COER Hydrodynamic Modeling Competition, which challenged researchers to predict the dynamic motion of a floating body in an irregular wave field using computer-based modeling software.
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16/28International Partnership to Accelerate Development of MHK Technologies
As the only U.S. representative of the DTOcean project, Sandia National Laboratories is developing tidal array modeling tools that will optimize the design of medium- to large-scale MHK arrays. When complete, these open-source tools will mitigate costs for developers and enable them to improve the power generation and reliability of MHK devices.
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17/28The First Hydropower Market Report Quantifies the Current Size, Scope, and Variability of Our Nation's Hydropower Supplies
The 2014 Hydropower Market Report, produced by Oakridge National Laboratory, is the first report to quantify the current size, scope, and variability of the nation's hydropower supplies. The report shows that hydropower currently provides approximately 7% of the U.S. electricity supply—enough to power more than 20 million homes and accounts for more than 55,000 U.S. jobs.
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18/28Providing for Local Electricity Needs with Hydrokinetic Energy in Irrigation Canals
Sandia National Laboratories collaborated with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the hydrokinetic energy developer, Instream Energy Systems, to perform field measurements near the Roza Hydro Power Plant in Yakima County, Washington, and to develop a predictive model with the ability to characterize the performance of a field-deployed turbine, determine the effects of hydrokinetic devices on local water-operations, and develop best practices for conducting canal-based hydrokinetic field studies.
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19/28Catalogue Enables Developers to Choose Best Possible Test Site
To facilitate the technology advancement essential for the successful deployment of wave energy converters (WEC), Sandia National Laboratories released the second edition of the Characterization of U.S. Wave Energy Converter Test Sites: A Catalogue of Met-Ocean Data. With five additional sites, the 2015 catalogue will open new pathways to commercialization by providing WEC developers with the critical wave statistics needed to determine the magnitude and quality of power resources at wave sites, as well as environmental loads required for WEC design. The catalogue also enables WEC developers to compare wave resource characteristics among the different sites, allowing them to select locations that are the most suitable for their device and that best meet their testing needs and objectives.
To improve the biological performance of dams and hydro turbines, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oakridge National Laboratory developed specialized design and evaluation tools that will enable new turbine designs to meet power production goals and minimize effects on fish. Based on biological data from field and lab studies, researchers developed a new version of the Sensor Fish, a small tubular device filled with sensors that analyzes the physical stresses fish experience. The latest rendition measures more forces, costs about 80% less, and can be used in more hydro structures than its predecessor.
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21/28Tiny Injectable Transmitters Enable Researchers to Track Fish Migration Patterns
Even though they may be considered as less glamorous than other migrating fish, eels and lampreys play a pivotal role in the health of oceanic and riverine ecosystems. For both species, hydropower dams may impede migratory spawning routes. In an effort to enable the survival of these species, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to create tracking systems to learn more about eel and lamprey migratory patterns that will inform the development of fish passage technology. To develop a means of tagging and tracking juvenile lampreys and eels, PNNL is applying its expertise in acoustic transmitters and battery technology, creating tiny (less than 1.5 centimeters), injectable transmitters capable of tracking the fish in one, two, or three dimensions.
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22/28New Fish Transport Systems Reduces Costs and Impacts
In 2015, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) evaluated a new fish transport system—the Whoosh Fish Transport System developed by Whooshh Innovations, LLC—to gauge the technology's effectiveness. The system uses a flexible tube and a pressure system to guide fish over and around structures. Compared to techniques used today, it could transport fish more quickly and at less cost. Using fall Chinook salmon, PNNL evaluated the Whooshh Fish Transport System against netting and the trap-and-haul technique. PNNL looked at adult survival, injury, reproductive readiness, physiological stress, and gamete survival, and found no significant differences between fish transported via the Whooshh system and other methods.
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23/28New Pathways for Hydropower: Getting Hydro Built
A new report, New Pathways for Hydropower: Getting Hydropower Built—What Does it Take?, published by Oakridge National Laboratory in partnership with the Hydro Research Foundation, identifies 31 technological ideas, some of which address the need to nurture hydropower-specific innovation and education. Although the focus of the report is new small hydropower, many of the ideas are applicable to hydropower development in general, and once implemented, will reduce deployment cost and time through efficient design, manufacturing, permitting and licensing, installation commission, operation, and maintenance.
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24/28First Fish Movement Simulator to Alleviate Ecological Concerns Relevant to Marine and Hydrokinetic Applications
In collaboration with the University of Maine and Army Corps of Engineers, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory used hydroacoustic fish surveys and an ecohydraulic model, the Eulerian-Lagrangian-agent Method (ELAM), to analyze fish movements in the presence of a tidal turbine deployed in Cobscook Bay, Maine, by the Ocean Renewable Power Company. Fish survey data and modelled flow fields will be integrated into the ELAM. Using this information, the ELAM will simulate fish movement trajectories that characterize fish behavior before, during, and after they encounter a turbine and the associated area of hydrodynamic effects. (Photo by Ocean Renewable Power Company)
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25/28Open-Source Software Reduces Time and Costs Associated with MHK Project Permitting
The first MHK deployments in the United States have had to absorb unsustainable costs associated with permitting to get the first devices in the water. Consequently, there is an urgent industry need to reduce costs and time associated with meeting regulatory requirements. The crux of the problem is that regulations necessitate that a detailed understanding of the environmental effects of MHK deployments must come prior to deployment, requiring the use of numerical models to simulate the virtual design of MHK array layouts and the environmental response. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is helping to overcome this technical challenge through the development of freely available, 'MHK-friendly' simulation tools that can accurately predict the changes to the physical environment associated with deploying arrays of MHK devices, fulfilling an industry-wide need. Thanks to a 10-year licensing agreement between SNL and software developer Deltares, the Delft-3D Software suite will be available to end users for the next 10 years. (Photo by Frederick Driscoll / NREL)
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26/28Thirteen Nations Address Environmental Effects of MHK Technologies
Led by PNNL, Annex IV brings together 13 nations to address the environmental effects of marine energy development and seeks to inform the MHK siting and permitting processes that will facilitate the development of this emerging industry. Through PNNL's Tethys database, Annex IV provides a common platform for collaborative work among marine energy researchers, regulators, developers, and stakeholders through a range of activities and products that include the broadcast and archiving of webinars, expert forums, and workshops focused on important scientific issues that are critical to the siting and permitting (consenting) of marine energy devices worldwide.
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27/28Study Evaluates Impacts of Acoustic Emissions from Hydrokinetic Turbines
To assess the potential for behavioral impacts on fish species likely to encounter hydrokinetic energy technologies, researchers at ORNL conducted experiments to evaluate fish response to sounds produced by MHK devices. Redhorse (Moxostoma spp), freshwater drum (Aplondinotus grunniens), largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), and rainbow trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss) were exposed to varying intensities of hydrokinetic turbine recordings in a seminatural environment. Fish were evaluated for differences in mean location during noise exposure and control trials, trends in mean fish location were also evaluated during long duration exposure to recordings.
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Date taken: 2016-02-11 18:11
28/28Assessing the Risk of Tidal Energy to Marine Mammals
Field measurement of marine mammal collisions with tidal turbines is almost impossible to conduct; consequently, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories conducted a simulated analysis of the potential risks. The analysis provides the marine energy industry, researchers, regulators, and stakeholders with surrogate research in the absence of extensive field data. Looking at turbine type—open center and two-bladed unducted—the study modeled potential strike scenarios for southern resident killer whales and harbor seals. The researchers considered the size of the mammal, strike location, angle, and skin/tissue structure when assessing the risk. For killer whales, the study found that the mammals face the possibility of lacerations, though such injuries were quite unlikely. Harbor seals, while extremely unlikely to get hit by turbine blades, face a greater risk of serious injury but are unlikely to be killed by a collision.